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Cowbee [he/they]

@ Cowbee @lemmy.ml

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1
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1172
Joined
3 yr. ago

Actually, this town has more than enough room for the two of us

He/him or they/them, doesn't matter too much

Marxist-Leninist ☭

Interested in Marxism-Leninism, but don't know where to start? Check out my Marxist-Leninist study guides, both basic and advanced!

  • Which national flags would you change?

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  • Sovereignty is only secured by the creation of an organized body, a monopoly on force, that can resist external domination. Statelets cannot do this, nor can disorganized regions. This is why finance capital breaks up and balkanizes countries it wishes to dominate, either politically via the creation of new statelets, or through economic balkanization of existing States.

    Secondly, the national question. A nation and a state are two different things. A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture. This is how I am using the term, and what I mean by gaining national autonomy. Internationalism, then, is the unity of many different national groups.

    Saying "fuck nations" in this context seems to be saying you wish to erase all identity and all cultural history, creating a sort of blob of humanity, but this isn't what I believe you mean, hence why I am taking the time to explain exactly what I mean.

    As for how you are classifying imperialism, this is frankly a bit absurd. Surely you can understand that the Alliance of Sahel States, in resisting French neocolonialism, is playing a progressive role. However you choose to interpret the Sahel States securing their sovereignty as "imperialism," surely you can see that this is far less consequential than the economic domination levied against west Africa by France and the US, no? By your estimation Palestinians are imperializing Israel by trying to secure their own statehood, and I know that's not what you actually believe, right?

  • Which national flags would you change?

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  • Oof, ty.

  • Which national flags would you change?

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  • A correction on the PRC's flag: the 4 smaller stars each represent one of the classes in New Democracy:

    1. The Proletariat
    2. The Peasantry
    3. The Petite Bourgeoisie
    4. The National Bourgeoisie

    The fifth, largest star, is for the CPC itself, which unites and guides the 4 classes, itself dominated by the proletariat.

    The old, five stripes flag is the one that represented the 5 major ethnic groups of China, which is often confused as the reasoning for China's current 5 stars.

  • Which national flags would you change?

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  • National sovereignty, celebration of indigenous cultures and maintaining the rights of self-determination for all peoples, is the first step towards genuine internationalism. Genuine sovereignty cannot be imposed from without, but comes from within. Tribalism and the progressive elements of nationalism are separate things. The basis of genuine internationalism is nations on equal footing and sovereignty.

    Nationalism in imperialist countries is exclusively negative. This is what is in service of perpetuating imperialism, and justifying racial supremacy. This is unambiguously an enemy to be crushed. Nationalism is not progressive in general, but in a particular context exclusively, such as Palestinian nationalism against genocide.

  • Which national flags would you change?

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  • No, this is myopic. Figures like Frantz Fanon and Kwame Nkrumah have correctly analyzed the necessity of establishing statehood and creating pan-African coalitions to resist the overwhelming might of western finance capital and neocolonialism. Nationalist compradors for neoimperialism are a consequence of deliberate balkanization and fragmentation by neocolonial powers. Same with Palestinian, Latin American, and Asian resistance to colonialism and neocolonialism.

    The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, and Neocolonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah are extremely useful and describe exactly the extent to which nationalism is useful in the anti-colonial context, and the extent to which it falters and holds the people back, devolving into tribalism. We can see the correctness of their views today with the progressive nationalist movements in resisting neocolonialism from Burkina Faso and the Alliance of Sahel States, where statelets are unifying into a front to support each other and resist foreign domination from France and the US.

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  • The 13 stripes represent the original 13 settler-colonies. A communist movement in the US needs to be decolonial in nature, which means restoring sovereignty to the indigenous peoples living on Turtle Island today. This is closer to a nazbol flag than a real communist flag.

  • Which national flags would you change?

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  • National liberation and sovereignty in colonized and neocolonized countries is a key first step in internationalism.

  • What's one book everyone should read at least once in their lifetime?

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  • Follow it up with Settlers, a history of settler-colonialism and the slave trade in the US. No matter how much you think you know about the history of indigenous genocide and chattel slavery in the US, reality is likely far worse than you think.

  • What's one book everyone should read at least once in their lifetime?

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  • Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels. Short, yet clearly elaborates on the shift from earlier utopian views of socialism of figures like Robert Owen to the scientific socialism of Marx and Engels. One of the best explanations of Marxism itself, other than the essay Principles of Communism. It was taken from the larger and more comprehensive Anti-Dühring as it was believed to be an excellent work for propaganda purposes (and this judgment proved correct, as the booklet spread like wildfire).

    Honorable mentions go to Capital, Volume I by Karl Marx, Imperialism, the Current Highest Stage of Capitalism by Lenin, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, and Neocolonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah. This series of books expands on capitalism during its beginning, intermediate, and imperialist phases, and imperialism itself in its beginning, intermediate, and final phases as they relate to colonialism and neocolonialism.

  • Where to start researching topics online

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  • For starters, I compiled a basic Marxist-Leninist study guide and host it over on c/communism. The first section might be interesting for you, it's intentionally short and punchy, and you don't need to go beyond it unless you want to.

    That all being said, the easiest and most intuitive way to imagine it is as a continuation of the increasing interdependence of humanity as has happened with capitalism, where production has been socialized globally but distribution remains private, into one where the social surplus created by society is controlled and directed by those producing it instead. Essentially, an increase in interconnectedness, and a full collectivization of production and distribution globally.

    That's communism, a global system. However, the process of building that comes from socialism first. Socialism is essentially where public ownership is the principal, ie rising and dominant aspect, of the economy, and the working classes control the state. Socialism is a transition to communism. Socialism begins in each country, communism arises from socialist countries gradually developing advanced production and stitching themselves all together over a long period of time.

    Markets essentially "socialize" production, creating an interconnected system. Central planning cannot work without highly developed productive forces at a large scale. In this way, capitalism prepares the ground for socialism. Just as capitalism prepares the ground for socialism, so too does socialism prepare the ground for communism. Most revolutions have happened in colonial countries revolting against colonialism, so this means they have had to take more drastic measures when it comes to creating self-sufficiency, with very underdeveloped productive forces (largely agrarian instead of industrial).

    That's the basics of it! Does that answer your question?

  • Where to start researching topics online

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  • I'm generally knowledgeable of my field of work, but I'd rather not share that and dox myself. Among subjects I'm more comfortable discussing online, I'm a bit of a Marxism nerd, sources like ProleWiki and Red Sails are usually good starting points for theory, and can help point towards primary sources in a similar way that Wikipedia can (neither are sources themselves, but frequently reference primary sources, books, etc that can be a kicking off point for in-depth study). Those aren't really what most people on this post are looking for though, I imagine.

  • Where to start researching topics online

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  • Depends entirely on the topic.

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  • I'm cautiously optimistic. Around the world, imperialism is dying away. The global south is developing and gaining sovereignty, and socialist countries are rising as well. We live in tumultuous times, but there's plenty of reason to be hopeful.

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  • Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, also known as Lenin.

  • Over what topic has someone argued with you the most on social media?

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  • Marxism-Leninism.

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  • Lemmy was made by communists, seeking to build an alternative to Reddit where communists will not be able to be fully censored. Federation also is similar to how the USSR was federated, and FOSS attracts the left. As such, many areas on Lemmy are going to be pro-CPC (and supportive of socialist states in general).

    This isn’t the case on every instance, though. Each instance has its own political leanings, some very anti-China and anti-communist in general. It depends on the moderation, federation practices, and focus of the instance itself.

    Communists tend to be pro-African, especially the Alliance of Sahel States.

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  • Hexbear.net is anarchist, Marxist-Leninist, and Maoist. It's best seen as "left unity" rather than ML, which is why it's federated with dbzer0 and quokk.au while Lemmygrad.ml is not.

  • Have you ever had a productive discussion on the Fediverse or gotten anything positive out of interacting with other users? What was the thread about?

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  • I'm not sure which post @Objection@lemmy.ml is referring to, but in simple terms, markets are useful in that they stitch together and connect production. This is a progressive development on disparate, unconnected production, be it for necessities or for luxuries. However, once production is all stitched together, it's easier to see the whole and plan it, by which point the progressive aspects of markets have outlived their usefulness.

    What's key, though, is control. Class struggle remains alive until it ends. In order to maintain socialist control, the large firms and key industries need to be dominated by a working class state. This way capitalists cannot leverage control over the means of production and turn it into political power, they are kept to secondary and highly competitive industries in a birdcage. They may fly as they see fit within those bounds, but the owner of the cage can shrink it as they see fit.

    Capitalism's historic role is in connecting humanity. In other words, in socializing production. The working class's historic role is socializing distribution as well, moving from the chaos of markets to a scientific plan gradually after siezing political control.

    Hope that helps!

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    Why does Lemmy.ML admire authoritarian regimes ?

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  • You claimed things like "it was done purely for ideology" and other bits I didn't say, so I added context. There wasn't a plan to execute the maximum limit, nor was the limit arbitrary. Further, the purges were popularly supported by the populace, because terrorism, infiltration, and assassinations were prevelant, including people like Kirov who were close to the top. The soviet system was democratic, the state was not above society.

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    Why does Lemmy.ML admire authoritarian regimes ?

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  • That wasn't what happened, though. The soviets had discovered in the 1930s that not only was there a plot against the soviet state from within, but also severe corruption and remnants of the former ruling classes and their sympathizers in place. The soviets had set up means of internal investigation, and by and large managed to kick out corrupt officials from government. They found many guilty of treason, corruption, and other serious crimes, but the number of found guilty and sentenced to death exceeded their estimates, and hence it was called off.

    The death penalty should be abolished, sure. However, socialist states, and especially the soviet union, are in a constant state of siege and infiltration. They weren't killing random people willy-nilly.